Facebook will stop counting likes from some accounts

Facebook is changing how it counts "likes" across its Pages for celebrities and businesses.

The social networking giant said Thursday it will no longer include likes from people who have deactivated their accounts or who have died. Facebook likes are an important measure of a Page's popularity and are a metric that advertisers closely watch.

The new like numbers, Facebook said, will be more accurate and give advertisers a better understanding of their audience.

"It's important to remember...that these removed Likes represent people who were already inactive on Facebook," the company said in a blog post. "Everyone benefits from meaningful information on Facebook."

Whether Facebook Page owners will appreciate the change is another question. Initially created as a way for celebrities and businesses to interact for free with Facebook users, Pages have been criticized for their opaque functionality.

In theory, users who like a Facebook Page will see new items posted to it. Because I like the Facebook page for "Star Wars," for example, I should see updates about the next film. But it doesn't always work that way. Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what types of posts I interact with the most, and that means some items from friends, family and Pages don't show up in in my feed each day.